It's like Kate from Jon & Kate plus 8. You think she's a genius? She's bringing in $$ because she has an unordinary life and is willing to make it public. She changed jobs from being a nurse to being a celebrity.

Now that she has quit her governor's post and moved on to the big money speech circuit while hosting no fewer than two shows on major networks, what ever happened to Palin's criticism of Obama as a celebrity?

what gets me is that most of the details of what goes on there are from the gay escorts that are effectively kidnapped and forced to work there. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me that the whole thing is just a gay orgy for all those jaded, old fuckers.

It's Bohemian Grove! number one, best country club evar! imagine being an old, megarich, stuffy white fag who hates black people. now YOU are invited to the most exclusive club that fits YOU!now you say...that's can't be possible. what's the catch? all you have to do is keep your mouth shut about us burning a child in the bowels of a 40 foot stone god.

but you say..wait..i'm catholic..i don't believe in ancient pagan gods..NO PROBLEM! we have boys, boys, all types of boys!!! $$$$ and not only that! dance nude in under the same trees as henry kissinger! sit where rockefeller conceived the council on foreign relations!! build your own feudal world order!do it all, here at bohemian grove!

Note: I don't have a problem with her celebrity status, I just wish that some part of her values could remain constant from week to week. One week she's criticizing Obama's use of teleprompters, the next week she is speaking at a convention from notes written on her hand. One month she simultaneously criticizes Obama for being an out-of-touch celebrity while railing against the evils of the "mainstream media", the next month she resigns from political office mid-term to pursue a career in television on a top rated news channel. She is pro-life one moment, then praises her daughter for "choosing" to carry her baby to term. She can praise the virtues of a small-government in one sentence and in the next praise the virtues of Ronald Reagan. She claims to be a devoted, pro-family mother who spends nearly all of her time away from her children. She preaches abstinence for others while her own teenage daughter gets pregnant behind her back. Do I even need to continue?

She lives in this bizarro world where you don't ever have to actually believe the words coming out of your own mouth, just saying them is good enough.

Sarah Palin the politician is dead, replaced by Sarah Palin the pundit with aspirations of becoming the female Beck/Limbaugh.

The tricky part is that she can't just make a clean switch without hemorrhaging her audience that allows her to lay claim to her outlandishly high speaking fees, show deals, and correspondent income. So the plan is, in my mind at least, is to string her followers along with the hopes that they can get her to run for higher office, all along bilking them for their hard earned cash. She leaves the idea on the table, hinting that she hasn't decided yet if she wants to run or not, but the option of her running is as dead as last month's pot roast. Her poll numbers are way too low to be considered a viable candidate anywhere outside the GOP tent. In time, you will hear her start to say that she can do more to help the country from the sidelines, along with Rush, Beck, and Hannity; "holding those in power accountable", and giving America "the truth she deserves".

Don't believe me? Why else would she charge the Tea Party a six figure speaking fee from an organization that is trying to congeal into a national movement. That's like a parent saying to their child "Sure, I'll send you to college... if you pay me $20,000 first". She cashed her chips in for a big payday, not for a chance at national office.

It should also be pointed out that a presidential campaign is hard work. For the principal candidate, it's basically a year or two spent living in crappy motel rooms and eating TV dinners. You don't get holidays, cause that's when likely voters aren't busy at work. The workday, during the heat of the campaign, stretches from 6 am (to get ready for morning shows/interviews) to 2 am (for news analysis). On the road, in between speaking engagements, you have to find the time to brush up on policy papers.

And Palin isn't exactly known for her work ethic.

Palin was exposed to only a fraction of the campaign's rigor, having been parachuted into the 2008 campaign in its final stretches. And even so, as some McCain staffers have indicated, she refused to pull her share of the load. For example, she didn't do any prep for the now-infamous Katie Couric interview.

From an objective viewpoint, she has no chance of becoming president. But in the Republican echo chamber, she and her supporters may think she has. It is not like they have that much connection to reality anyway. Perhaps Palin thinks that earning a little money on the way to the presidency is just her god-given right?

I think we established in the last presidential election that Palin has no connection to reality...

Palin in the role of President, things would have had the chance to be more of a catastrophic failure. Palin in the role of pundit, still dangerous, but less likely for things to veering off course and over a thousand foot cliff. We've seen what effect polarized pundits can have on this country. Pundits from both sides vilify the other. How can you even begin to have conversations about differences between two groups if they are convinced that the other is innately evil or wants to destroy their way of living?

I think of it in the following way: Palin the President I liken to suffering a gun shot wound to the heart, Palin the pundit would be like getting brain cancer. Both are highly likely be fatal, but at least with the cancer you would have a chance of treating it. One major screw up in the role of President could be catastrophic.

I still refuse to believe that President Palin could ever occur in any kind of reality. And, so that having been dismissed, she could either be Palin the governor from Alaska no one outside of Alaska had ever heard of, or Palin the Beck, and the latter is far more dangerous.

I blame McCain, entirely. He created this monster, and his sin shall not be forgotten.

One of the event organizers, Gabe Macaluso, told the Spectator that landing Palin was “quite the coup.” The appearance brought a local backlash the newspaper conducted a non-scientific online survey asking readers if they would pay to see her? More than 1,600 voted and 90 per cent said no. But the charity event, with tickets running $200, sold out.

I'm shocked that anyone in Canada is willing to pay $200 to see her. I was actually under the impression that everyone outside of the States hated her.

She's not an idiot. She's a rabble rousing celebrity with a political slant. She's an idiot as a public servant/policy maker. Hopefully she keeps her celebrity job... many celebrities fade out of the limelight with time.

Paris Hilton, for example, is a perfect example of someone carefully cultivating an image different from what reality likely tells us. The image of an idiot is actually somewhat required to pull off the multi-million dollar act without making all the marks pissy.

I'm not yet convinced that she is an idiot. There's a good possibility that it's all an elaborate marketing ploy to make her more appealing to idiots. Reminds me of Nixon's plan to convince the Soviets that he was insane.

Worked for Bush. He's actually quite smart, the whole Texan accent and cowboy look were deliberately cultivated to make him "one of us", "someone we'd have a beer with". Either that or the dude had a complete personality change a couple of years before office.

You don't need to be smart to make money. You can be a complete idiot and the marketing people will sell you to other idiots like you... check all the starts in the reality tv world ( Kardashians, mtvs, kate and jhon, the lady with the surgeries....)

Okay, so I read this comment and decided I would check its validity. I figured it would be one of those "gotcha!" type deals, but I actually checked, and while it is in the dictionary (obviously), there are no synonyms listed in the thesaurus.

Antonyms? You betcha'. But for the synonyms, it's left blank, so the word gullible is unique in that it is the only word in the English language that represents what it means.

I went to check the Wikipedia article (here) and it talks about that unique property of the word. Quite an interesting read.

A Palin aide responding to questions from ABC News said the governor “is now a private citizen. As a result, her fees and earnings are private.”

Uhh. No. Just because she's not currently a politician doesn't mean she's not still a public figure; wanting to be a celebrity with a TV show and book deal means public figure. Besides, it's exceedingly difficult to actually "drop" or "lose" public figure status once you've gained it.

She did not charge fellow Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann for an appearance at a fundraiser in Minnesota last week, for instance. And she has indicated that she will not collect fees for speeches at certain charitable functions. At the same time, a report in the Hamilton Spectator quoted organizers who said she would be paid “in the ballpark” of $200,000 to speak at a fundraising dinner for the Juravinski Cancer Center and St. Peter’s Hospital outside of Toronto.

In the words of Obama, she's "...Not an expert on nuclear issues..." or much else for that matter, she is indeed an expert at being a political celebrity. She's garnered a plethora of fans thanks to the 2008 election and now with a solid fan base, the rest is history... Very lucrative history.

Thank you for saying what I've wanted to say. I actually refrained myself from saying it cuz I'm pretty tired of being downvoted. I feel that way about most of the high paying jobs in America: rap artist, singers, any type of celebrity, entertainers, athletes, realtors, FIRE industry, Wall St., govt bureaucratic jobs, dog walkers, personal fitness trainers, etc. Productivity is highly overrated in our society, it seems.

Your pay does not necessarily equal your contributions and value to society. Despite what some of the hardcore market fundamentalists want us to believe. Paris Hilton has not contributed more to society than an entire school district full of teachers and at-risk youth councelors, yet she gets paid more than that group combined.

This is actually what her ex-son-in-law whats-his-name said when she first quit as governor; he said she was quitting to make money and cash-in on her celebrity.

It actually makes sense whether she's interested in running for President or not.

If she runs for President, it will really help for her to have a big stash of money. Not to spend it for the campaign (only really, really rich people do that), but to stay in nice hotels rather than dives, to pay for a few things herself that would look bad if to spend campaign dollars on (e.g. she probably won't use campaign donations for fancy clothes next time), and to survive for 2+ years of full-time campaigning without a real paying job.

If she doesn't run for President, this is probably her only chance in the national spotlight so it makes sense to cash in while she can. $12 million is about 6 times what I thought she'd be able to make though - that is impressive for someone who a few years ago was probably earning $75,000 a year as a small-town mayor.